Latest

Section 71(3) assessments: are they worth the cost?

Applications for the detailed assessment of costs by beneficiaries have been cast in the spotlight following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Kenig v Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP [2024] EWCA Civ 15. Tucker v Howe [2026] EWHC 208 (SCC) is a new addition to the post-Kenig landscape. The claimants challenged a bill of £147,436.33 and, after nine days of court time, achieved a reduction of less than £18,000. They were then ordered to pay, out of their own pockets, the costs of the assessment on an indemnity basis, assessed at £132,400 plus VAT.

Wills and Estates, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Laches in probate claims

There are certain areas of the law in which practitioners invariably confront limitation periods and other deadlines. One of these is litigation under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, with its strict statutory deadline for the issue of a claim. Probate claims, however, do not tend to attract similar concerns, given the lack of statutory limitation period and the existence of the mechanism allowing a person to enter a caveat against an estate.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment
Latest issue
Download
Past issues
Roundup

IHT – When does the seven-year period start?

One of the most basic Inheritance Tax mitigation strategies is to make a Potentially Exempt Transfer  and to survive for seven years. It is generally well understood that if there is a reservation of benefit, the seven-year survival period will not start running until the reservation of benefit is removed.

Taxation, IHT

CGT Investors’ Relief

Briefing, CGT

Challenging the validity of a will

Wills and Estates, Family Issues
Briefing

Court of Protection documents

Court of Protection applications for statutory wills, lifetime gifts, and the appointment and removal of attorneys and deputies are likely to involve consideration of P’s dispositive and testamentary wishes, family relationships and dynamics, capacity, and susceptibility to influence.

Briefing, Construction and Validity, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Procedural concerns for trust accounting

This article considers two recent judgments given after the taking of trust accounts. The first is Master Marsh’s decision in Hubbard v Hubbard [2025] EWHC 855 (Ch). The second, Master McQuail’s judgment in Walker v Somboonsarn [2025] EWHC 1643 (Ch). These judgments offer rare guidance into the practice on the taking of an account.

Briefing, Family Issues, Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management
Wills and Estates

Sifting the delusional from the merely mistaken

Contentious probate practitioners are familiar with the difficult discussions with disappointed, would-be beneficiaries (“DB”) in which the stated reasons for DB’s exclusion given by the testator (“T”) to the drafting solicitor are dissected. Typically, these explanations might include things the DB has apparently done (disparaged T, sponged off T, stolen from T), not done (provided care, visited T sufficiently) or received from T during their lifetime (enough, more than others) which the DB asserts are demonstrably false.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues

Promises and contracts

Several recent decisions have considered the potential effect of partnership agreements on proprietary estoppel claims made in the context of family farming partnerships. This article seeks to summarise those decisions and briefly consider whether they establish any principles of general application.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, From the Courts
Trusts

Fiduciary duties

For those whose pulse quickens at the mention of fiduciary doctrine, 2025 has been a year of bountiful riches, with the Supreme Court handing down no fewer than three decisions in the field. In March, came Rukhadze and Others v Recovery Partners GP Ltd and Another [2025] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 329 in which the court was required to fend off attacks on equity’s hallowed “no-profit rule” from common law barbarian invaders.

Income & Corporation Tax, Trusts, Taxation, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts

Validity and enforceability of oral trusts of land

The Court of Appeal’s decision in National Iranian Oil Company and Another v Crescent Gas Corporation Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 1211 raises important considerations on the scope of section 53(1)(b) LPA and the consequences of non-compliance in the context of insolvency proceedings.

Ownership Arrangements, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice
Taxation

Secret trusts and tax avoidance

The recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Lorenz v Caruana and Others [2025] EWCA Civ 606 offers an opportunity to discuss secret trusts in the particular context of attempted tax avoidance using the spousal exemption for Inheritance Tax.

Taxation, IHT, CGT, Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts

Family farms and proprietary estoppel

Two recent High Court judgments involving family farms, Scott v Estate of Richard Norman Scott [2025] EWHC 2796 (Ch) and Maile v Maile [2025] EWHC 2494 (Ch), have illustrated the difficulties faced by claimants trying to establish a claim in proprietary estoppel.

IHT, Wills and Estates, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts
From the Courts

Signed, sealed and delivered

Canarapen v Gauchenot [2025] EWHC 2728 (Ch) concerns a deed of variation that gifted a share in a property. The party making the gift under the deed later regretted their decision and sought to revoke it. The decision examines both the formal and substantive requirements for a deed to be valid.

Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, From the Courts, Legal Practice

A decision worth “noticing”

Notice is a familiar and important concept to trust lawyers. Paradigmatically, it is a key component of the defence of bona fide purchaser without notice, which determines whether a person takes a legal property interest subject to, or free from, an equity or equitable proprietary interest of another.

Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, Trusts, From the Courts, Legal Practice
Real Estate

Third party disclosure in IHTA claims

In the present case the probate valuation was outdated and unreliable, with the company controlled by family members (with their own interests), reluctant to provide the information necessary for a proper valuation. The question arose: could the court compel disclosure from the company to enable proper valuation, or did the parties have to proceed with inadequate information?

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Taxation and Valuation, Ownership Arrangements

Despite MS word, “matrimonialisation” is still in the dictionary

This important appeal arose out of proceedings brought under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 for the division of assets upon divorce. In determining the fair outcome to which the parties are entitled, several guiding principles have been developed. One of those principles is the sharing principle, pursuant to which property is classified as either matrimonial or non-matrimonial and such of the property as is deemed to be matrimonial is shared, usually but not invariably on an equal basis. This was the issue with which this appeal was concerned.

Family Issues, Ownership Arrangements, Legal Practice